Dylan Baird

Comp II TR 9:00Diana Watkins21 April 2015Essay Outline1. Intro (Title: Generation: Poverty?)A. Statistic about the actual poverty line for a single personB. Actual average cost of tuition for one yearC. Causes problems for people trying to ditch poverty2. Body (History and Present)A. Stats about cost of college in the 60sB. Mesta Interviewa) Causes stress and burdens the student by having so many things happeningat onceC. Poverty is more than a financial problemb) The financial side only adds to a current state of mental povertyc) Poverty takes many formsD. The Emotional and stress related side of collegea) As students we are expected to balance many plates, figuratively speaking.b) Professors, homework, mental health, good grades, and money are alldifficult to juggle. Picture a skinny guy trying to juggle fifteen poundbowling balls.3. The solution and how people can helpE. Article about 2 free years of community college and how it would helpa) Could help underprivileged students get a foot in the door and build aladder out of poverty.F. Why community colleges should not be discounted as a lesser educationb) Personal experience and how I received a better quality education from acommunity college.G. How community colleges can help people in poverty get outc) Provides a cheaper, more interactive and overall better quality educationH. Possible volunteer-for-credit opportunitiesd) Working in the community in exchange for free tuition? Fees?I. Balance and minimizing stresse) To me, stress is a huge factor in being considered in poverty. If you arenot happy, a lifestyle change must occur.

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Dylan BairdComp II TR 9:00Diana Watkins21 April 2015Generation: Poverty?The yearly income at which a family of two is considered to be in poverty is $15,730. Fora single person that number drops to $11,670 per year (Families USA). On average, the cost oftuition is $9,139 for state residents attending public colleges (College Data). Suddenly, gettingoneself out of the hole of poverty does not sound so easy, does it? College is almost impossibleto leave debt free without some outside help, and if a person were not fortunate enough to haveparents who stayed together and saved for their education, they could be in some serious trouble.This has caused college poverty to become a problematic, yet prominent issue in todays society.From first grade through high school it has been drilled into young heads that college is anecessity. What they do not tell them, though, is that they, and their parents, will be shelling outalmost ten grand a year on average for that necessary-to-succeed education. To put that inperspective, ten-thousand dollars could provide a select number of college kids a meal outside ofthe realm of Ramen noodles. All jokes aside, college is and always has been highly expensive.Even in 1960 the cost of college was anywhere from five-hundred to two-thousand dollars,which was a lot of money at the time (Berry).So, why is going to college such a necessity? Why not start flipping burgers like a prostraight out of high school? There will be cash in your pocket and your mom will surely not mindyou living at home for another 10 years! Well, because college offers more prestige and securitythan flipping burgers for a career. One can land a better job, obtain more experience, and earn a

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substantially higher wage than with a simple high school diploma simply by going to college.That sounds easy enough for some people, but for others, like me, it can be a bit daunting. Beinga college student requires paying for tuition and books, balancing homework and study times,maintaining high grades, paying for room and board, working part time, and taking care ofoneself all while maintaining mental health and low stress. While performing this plate balancingact it becomes easy to lose track of why one is even there in the first place.What does all this have to do with poverty? Well, I think that college poverty goes muchdeeper than simply not having enough money. True college poverty is having the crushing stressof education placed upon ones shoulders. To put it harshly, college is having chains strapped toevery limb. Professors, tuition, grades, and ones own health and well being are all being pulledin separate directions with the same force. This force is known as stress. With so much stressbeing placed on college students it comes as no surprise that many are unhappy and feelburdened (Mesta).The poverty rate is 51.8 percent, but when eliminating college students who live offcampus and not with a relative that number drops to 14.5 percent (Fang).This brings me to mynext point. Which is better, years of student debt or making a substance wage for the rest of yourlife? These are not the only two options for a future, but they ring true for underprivileged kidsfrom families deep in the shackles of poverty. These families cannot afford tuition for their childand thus that child will probably be in debt up to their ears by the time they graduate should theychoose to attend college.Another item to take into consideration is college readiness. In my experience, I wasscared to go to college because I had no idea what it would be like to be on my own. The highschool I attended did not make much use of online programs such as The Blackboard or TurnItIn,

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so I had no idea how they worked. I was never taught how to enroll in college, and because ofthat, I felt helpless the day I went to enroll. How am I supposed to decide on the career that Iwant for the rest of my life when I am only 18? Of course, a lot has changed since the start of theschool year, but I am sure many other seniors have the same burning questions and anxieties.Why do we not teach our children to be ready for college? In a way, I feel like we set our kids upfor failure by not preparing them. After that, our psychiatric patient rating is likely to go up alongwith our poverty percentage because some kids just are not ready.Some, including me, have been fortunate enough to have high school programs thatprepare them for college. The program for my class in high school was called GearUp. GearUphelped maximize our college readiness by taking us on free college tours, making sure we hadinformation on hand about college, providing us with knowledge about grants and scholarships,and giving surveys to gauge our college readiness. In return for doing these surveys, theyprovided the school with grants for new technology. GearUp is a fantastic program, but it is stillflawed. Just over 69percent of studentsand only about 50 percent of African Americans,Hispanic and low-income studentsgraduate from high school on time, many without the skillsneeded for college or work (Spotlight on Poverty). Even with the campus tours and numeroussurveys I still did not feel prepared for college, and I would be lying if I said I was not strugglingnow.This is a huge factor in whether teenagers are able to complete college. The stress ofclasses and homework alone is nearly enough to make a head spin, but when one tries to juggle ajob, numerous fees, books, and the occasional parking ticket along with those items it can beextremely daunting. This is why college readiness should be a top priority if our goal is to haveas many students as possible graduate from college. The information about enrollment

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procedures is invaluable, because one could end up with an advisor who does not care about theireducation.These problems could all be easily fixed by making it mandatory that high schoolstudents are familiar with college procedures. This can be done with a simple course that couldtest students for college readiness. Also, scholarships and grants play a large part in the lives ofunderprivileged students. Teaching students about these opportunities could help save astruggling student from thousands of dollars in student debt and years of living in poverty tryingto pay off their education.Barack Obama proposed a plan to make 2 years of community college free nationwide(Goldrick-Rab). Last summer, the Obama administration pledged to invest $12 billion towardthe American Graduation Initiative, a plan to help five million additional students graduate fromcommunity colleges by 2020 (Fischer). This act could have both positive and negative impactson our society. On a positive note, struggling students, single parents, and other people lookingto dig their selves out of a hole would have an opportunity to succeed without the burden oftuition. This would greatly increase the college graduation rate, and alleviate tons of stress fromthe shoulders of students. How can one maintain high grades while working two jobs to pay forthat education?On the negative side, this would raise the tax rate and cost taxpayers a ton of cash. Thiscould be harmful because some would not take their education seriously and thus that moneywould be wasted. To solve this, there could be a qualification exam that could measure a certainlevel of mental being in order to be given the grant. This would minimize taxes levied ontaxpayers and would in turn help those in dire need of an education. Another problem that couldoccur with this project is that it does not take into consideration that students could be struggling

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to pay for more than school. It should also incorporate free or income based housing and acertain amount of meal plan so the student can enjoy food on campus.However, this plan could tie in well with the point made in the article CommunityColleges as a Pathway out of Poverty. In this article the author tells about a program calledASAP and how community colleges are often overlooked in terms of education. ASAP offersparticipants a set of services and incentives that researchers have highlighted as beneficial toimproving retention and graduation, including tuition waivers for financial aid-eligible studentsand free transportation and textbooks for all participants (Fischer). Needless to say, this is anamazing program for teens living in poverty. Fischer sort of paints community colleges as alesser to the large universities, but in my own experience I have received a phenomenaleducation from the community colleges I have attended. The class sizes are smaller than largeuniversities and thus the instructors care about the individuals and their education. At largeuniversities this is certainly not the case.Students from high-poverty schools are less likely to immediately enroll in college andto remain enrolled after one year than students from more well-off high schools (Bidwell). Itis easy to see why. With class sizes well into the hundreds, and being much more expensive thantheir community counterpart, large universities can put more pressure on students by not givingthem one on one experience with the instructor. However, this could play as a positive toencourage student interaction and cooperation. This could be a desirable skill in the real world.Another possible solution could be to provide free tuition at the cost of free labor.Colleges have already employed this technique, but there lies a small problem with it. Somepeople are natural born hard workers while others are fine with being couch potatoes. This canlead to workload imbalances and create stress, and that is the opposite of what we are trying to

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accomplish. To solve this, I would suggest several different job choices for volunteer work.Some jobs would be for the hard working and the easier jobs would be for the less hard workingstudents.All in all, college poverty goes beyond having money for food, tuition, and books.College poverty also deals with the stress individuals face as students. Balancing homework, ajob, and ones own health and well being is much harder than it sounds. All of these problemscould be solved by making community colleges free for dedicated students, providing free orreduced housing, and granting individuals a certain amount of meal plan.

Baird |9BibliographyBerry, Dave. College Costs 50 Years Ago. 2001. College Confidential. Web. 11 April2015.www.collegeconfidential.comThis is an article about the varying costs of college in the 60s and up. I usedthis to give comparison about the cost of college then versus the cost of collegenow, and how it has always been extremely expensive.Bidwell, Allie. "Wealthier Schools Send More Students to College." 2015. U.S. News.Web. 11 April 2015. <www.usnews.com>This is a great article from U.S. News. In the article it talks about the incomeof the high school one attends could have an impact on college enrollment."Students from high-poverty schools are less likely to immediately enroll in college and to remain enrolled after one year - than students from more well-off schools." Ichose this article because it is packed full of information about how a poor highschool can make for a poor future.Fang, Marina. "Poverty Among College Students Increases The Overall Rate." 2005.Think Progress. Web. 11 April 2015. <www.thinkprogress.org>This is a short article without much information. I chose it because it hasreally interesting statistics about how if college students were not factored in, thenational poverty rate would drop significantly. Although, I feel the data is a bitskewed because they leave out college students who live in dorms. Students wholive in dorms can be in just as much poverty as an off-campus student."Federal Poverty Guidelines." 2015. Families USA. Web. 11 April 2015.<www.familiesusa.org>This is a simple poverty guideline that shows how much a family might bemaking to be considered "in poverty."Fischer, David Jason. "Community Colleges as a Pathway Out of Poverty." n.d.Center for an Urban Future. Web. 11 April 2015. <www.nycfuture.org>This article by Fischer is about how community colleges can be a light at theend of a tunnel to some that are struggling with poverty. I disagree with this articlein some aspects because he diminishes the community college lifestyle. I feel thatin a way he thinks one is getting less of an education at a community college, and Istand as a testament that that is certainly not the case. I chose to use this articlebecause while I disagree with the tone toward community colleges, the article stillhas some valuable information and statistics.

B a i r d | 10Goldrick-Rab, Sara. 2009. TalkPoverty.org. Web. 11 April 2015. <www.talkpoverty.org >This article examines Barack Obama's idea to make two years of communitycollege free nationwide, and how it will "help, not hurt, low-income students." Thisarticle is interesting because it refutes the perception that community college is"nearly free, especially for students from low-income families," while in fact,community colleges end up costing about $8,000-$11,000 on average per year aftergrants. I chose this because having two free years of college sounds like a prettygood deal to me and provides a good argument for my solution part of theassignment.Mesta, Daniel. Interview. Dylan Baird. 11 April 2015. Personal Interview.Daniel is my roommate and lived in the dorms for 2 years before moving.During the interview I kept my questions based around his stress levels aboutcollege while living in the dorms, and some about the financial side of college. Someof his answers were of use because they reaffirmed my idea that poverty is morethan just not having money to live comfortably. I proved this because Daniel hashad college completely paid for by his parents."Spotlight on Poverty." 2015. Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. Web. 11 April2015. <www.spotlightonpoverty.org>This is an extremely short article from Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity.Albeit short, this article contains an interesting statistic that I chose to support mypaper. Other than that, there is not much here."What's the Price Tag for a College Education?" 2015. College Data. Web. 11 April2015.<collegedata.com>This is a short article about the cost of college tuition. I used it solely as areference for the average cost of college.